Extraordinary Life: Biology Teacher, And Friend To Struggling Students

Courtesy of Rob Bergeron

Jane Bergeron, a resident of Barkhamsted, was a biology teacher at Hall High School in West Hartford for nearly 40 years. She died on Feb. 19 at age 77, died February 19 of a heart attack. For Extraordinary Life, Sunday, march 29, 2015.

Jane Bergeron, a resident of Barkhamsted, was a biology teacher at Hall High School in West Hartford for nearly 40 years. She died on Feb. 19 at age 77, died February 19 of a heart attack. For Extraordinary Life, Sunday, march 29, 2015. (Courtesy of Rob Bergeron)

ANNE M. HAMILTONSpecial to The Courant

Extraordinary Life: Jane Bergeron was a no-nonsense teacher and a loyal friend.

For Jane Bergeron, life was all about helping others, whether it involved dissecting fetal pigs, encouraging a student struggling with adolescent angst or negotiating better treatment for patients in a nursing home. She was a direct, no-nonsense biology teacher and a loyal friend who loved bawdy Shakespearean jokes.

For nearly 40 years, she was a beloved and respected biology teacher at Hall High School in West Hartford.

Jane McCorkle Bergeron, 77, died Feb. 19. She had lived with her husband, Robert Bergeron Jr., in the Pleasant Valley section of Barkhamsted.

Jane was born on Sept. 15, 1937 in Philadelphia to Ralph and Mildred McCorkle, but her parents divorced when she was young, and she moved to Tom's River, N.J., where her mother taught Latin. She was interested in science, loved horses and excelled at sports. Of the five girls in her close circle of friends, she was the most adventurous, said Faith Roberts, a classmate — as well as smart: Bergeron was ranked fourth in her class academically.

She went to Springfield College, prepared to be a physical education teacher, and taught PE for several years. But she had injured her back baling hay, and later damaged her knee while skiing, so she took courses in order to teach another favorite subject: biology, which required less physical exertion.

She studied at the University of Michigan, Southern Connecticut State University and Eastern Connecticut State University, and continued taking courses to keep up with the rapidly changing field. She began teaching at Hall in 1962.

Bergeron was an energetic and imaginative teacher who introduced oceanography into the curriculum, qualified as a scuba diver and took students on field trips to Bermuda during spring break. For years, she was in charge of the plant and animal room at the school, which meant overseeing the students who watered the plants and fed the various creatures kept there. It also meant caring for the various snakes, mice, rats and other animals herself during vacations and over the summer.

Her son, Robert, grew up in a menagerie, with a basement and backyard full of cages containing boa constrictors, lizards, guinea pigs and skunks.

In school, Bergeron was known for her extra efforts with underachieving students.

"She was great with kids who were struggling, and made them feel wanted," said Fred Brown, another biology teacher at Hall.

She continued to try to help out even when other teachers threw up their hands and despaired of reaching certain students. Bergeron was very proud that one young man who had been especially unfocused in school became a municipal police officer.

"She gave a helping hand to a kid other teachers would have thought of as a pain in the butt," said Karl Mason, a Hall teacher.

In a school where parents could exert a lot of influence, "she didn't care who the parents were," Brown said. She cared about the students. "She was very caring. She gave the impression of being a tough cookie, and if you didn't behave — she was a tough cookie."

Bergeron had a collaborative approach, worked with other teachers, and was a role model to new arrivals. When Barbara Bennett began teaching at Hall fresh out of college, she emulated Bergeron's style, which was "strict but easygoing."

"She made sure everyone did what they were supposed to do, but she wasn't a task master," Bennett said.

When issues arose with the administration about discipline, scheduling or attendance policies, Bergeron "wasn't afraid to speak up to the administration," said Simone Vrable le Coutre, an English and journalism teacher at Hall.

Bergeron loved to laugh and enjoyed practical jokes. She carpooled from Pleasant Valley with several other teachers, including one who she knew was afraid of snakes.

One day, when she was returning to school after vacation, she carried a heavy canvas bag that she said contained a boa. The teacher, Harry Tubman, told her that in future, he would drive alone if she was planning to carry a snake to school. When they arrived in the teacher's room, Bergeron put the bag on a table. "She reached in and pulled out the contents. I jumped on a radiator," Tubman said. The contents turned out to be a woman's feather boa. "I never forgot," he said.

Besides being admired for her teaching, Bergeron was loved for the kindness she showed others. Tubman and his wife, Ticia, were in the process of adopting a child of 5 or 6 when they got a phone call on a Sunday saying they were now the parents of a 2-day-old baby — and would they pick him up on Tuesday.

Panicked, they called Bergeron, who had a 1-year-old. She loaded up her van and filled it to the top with her own baby clothes and equipment, including "the Cadillac of baby carriages," said Tubman. When the baby arrived — with only one diaper, one blanket and one bottle — the Tubmans had everything they needed, including a crash course on baby raising from Bergeron, who spent several days with them.

Likewise, le Coutre said that when her husband died suddenly, leaving her with three young children, Bergeron stepped in to help.

Some years ago, Bergeron "adopted" an older member of her church, St. John's Episcopal of New Hartford, who had no family nearby. She visited frequently during the woman's remaining years, sent greeting cards and took her on excursions. She enjoyed helping, and began visiting other parishioners — and friends of friends — in nursing homes.

She became a patient ombudsman, a person who would be knowledgeable about the treatment plan and advocate for the patient's best interests. "She was a very strong-willed person and solved a lot of problems," her husband said.

She persuaded her church to provide a meal each month to an AIDS residence in Hartford, and was a strong supporter of Doctors Without Borders, the Roaring Brook Nature Center, Feed the Children and many other charities.

Bergeron was a member of several singing groups, including the Laurel City Choir, and enjoyed choral music of any kind.

She could be caustic as well as compassionate, but despite suffering serious pain in her joints for the past few years, she remained funny and the center of her group of friends.

"Jane was a focal person in a very eclectic social group that included people from all over," said Tubman, an English teacher who used to exchange salty Shakespeare quotes with Bergeron.

"She lived life out loud, in capital letters," Tubman said.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her son, Robert Bergeron III, and a grandson, Alexander Bergeron.